Sony Xperia XZ Premium hands on

Review

A world first from Sony

Just six months after the stunning XZ, Sony has announced its next smartphone instalment, the Xperia XZ Premium. The new handset features the world’s first 4K HDR mobile display and has an improved camera, capable of shooting video at a super slow frame rate of 960fps. This is what’s on offer...

Design and display

The new smartphone closely follows the design of its predecessor, with curved edges, but now has the impressive new display we mentioned above. It measures 5.5-inches from corner to corner, and the resolution is incredible – with 807 pixels per inch, compared to the XZ’s 424.

The XZ Premium is available in two colours, deep-sea black, and the beautiful luminous chrome - which is essentially a mirror. It’s made using Corning® Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back, so it not only looks great, but is hardy too.

The smartphone is also protected against water and dust, certified as IP68. This means that you can safely dunk it in fresh water for up to 30 minutes, to a depth of 1.5m, and there’ll be no damage.

Camera

After the 4K HDR display, the 19MP camera is the next best thing about this smartphone. Sony’s award-winning mobile G Lens is the first on a smartphone to feature its own dedicated memory processor, making the super slow-motion video capture possible.

The 960fps mode can be used to capture a second’s worth of footage, which when slowed down extends to around four or five seconds. It’s seriously impressive, and provides a way for amateur filmmakers to shoot creative high-frame rate video.

There’s a secondary camera on the front of the smartphone, just above the lens, for all your selfies. It’s a very impressive 13MP and can shoot video in Full HD, so all your posts will look pin sharp.

Power and performance

On the inside of the smartphone, there’s a lot happening too. To start off with, there’s 64GB of internal storage, which will be plenty of room to store all your awesome slow-mo videos, as well as lots of other apps and games. There’s also 4GB RAM, joined by the new Snapdragon 835 Qualcomm processor.

The battery has taken a step up in the past six months, now at 3,230mAh (compared to XZ’s 2,900mAh cell), and it can be powered up using the speedy USB Type-C technology. And with Sony’s Smart STAMINA mode, you’ll be able to stretch out the last few percent until you get to a plug socket.